Big 12 is back in the business of bickering

The honeymoon for the remarried Big 12 lasted about 13 months before the popular topic of blowing up the league was revisited.

The issue this time is the Longhorn Network, although it is just a new symptom of an old disease.

Conference Commissioner Dan Beebe is beholden to his Burnt Orange overlords — as were his predecessors, as will be his successors if the league lasts that long. Whatever keeps Texas happy keeps the Big 12 intact. But indulging every Texas power grab might drive disgruntled Big 12 schools into the arms of more equitable conferences, as we’ve already seen with Nebraska and the Big Ten.

So here we go again, in a dispute that never needed to be. If the league members had the foresight to pool all their television rights, there would be no Longhorn Network, just as there is no Buckeye Network or Gator Network. There might have been a Big 12 Network, though, which would have made every league member richer and better. While the Big 12 schools figure out ways to make a few more bucks than their partners, they lose ground to the collective bargaining power of the more unified Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC.

I’m not sure why the Longhorn Network is just now sparking furious debate. It is overdue. In January, ESPN announced it would be paying Texas $15 million per year for the honor of broadcasting a 24/7 infomercial. From the get-go, it was suggested that the network would televise high school football in addition to Longhorn games, coaches shows, commencement speeches and whatnot.

The angst escalated a few weeks ago after a radio interview in which Dave Brown, the Longhorn Network’s vice president for programming and acquisitions, started name-dropping specific unsigned Texas football recruits whose games would be televised. If Brown were an employee of the school, his public comments would have been an NCAA violation, but he is an employee of ESPN. Do you think recruits make that distinction, separating the two entities, or do they just hear a homer from the Longhorn Network singing their praises?

Beebe said the network’s plan to broadcast high school games is on hold until the NCAA can sort out the matter. It is uncharted territory, but surely no one could dispute that broadcasting high school games is an unfair recruiting advantage. Actually, at Big 12 media days, Texas Coach Mack Brown preposterously claimed that all schools recruiting in the state of Texas would benefit from games being shown on something called the Longhorn Network.

“What are we doing here?” Pinkel asked rhetorically, saying that allowing high school games on the Longhorn Network showed “a lack of common sense.”

“The lifeblood of every program is recruiting,” Stoops added. “And so we either all recruit by the same rules or we don’t.”

Congratulations to Pinkel and Stoops for speaking their minds while other coaches plastered on smiles and performed the I-am-but-a-simple-caveman routine when asked for their opinion about the network.

Heads are about to explode over this matter at Texas A&M, where coaches get fired for losing to the Longhorns. The rumor mill has reheated with suggestions Texas A&M could leave for the SEC. Tim Brando of CBS Sports even tweeted that Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Missouri have spoken to the SEC about defecting.

I doubt that. One MU official said Friday there was “zero” truth to that report, Texas A&M Athletic Director Bill Byrne said he doesn’t want to leave the Big 12 and Oklahoma Athletic Director Joe Castiglione is a staunch Big 12 guy. At the SEC media days last week, Commissioner Mike Slive said his conference wasn’t shopping but boasted that it could go from 12 to 16 teams in 15 minutes.

From Missouri’s perspective, I don’t think the SEC would be the right move anyway. The Big Ten would be a good fit academically, culturally and competitively, and the SEC wouldn’t be. The only compelling reason to go would be the imminent demise of the Big 12.

Which brings me to my final point. If the Big 12 is going to survive, its schools are going to have to learn to compromise. Texas needs to tone down the Gordon Gecko act, and the others can’t treat every controversy as an excuse to dismantle the conference.